PROVIDENCE, R.I. – New Brown head coach Jesse Agel knows who’s not walking through the locker room door.
“Our problem was we kept looking for (Damon) Huffman and (Mark) McAndrew,” Agel quipped after Brown beat Army on Wednesday.
The team he inherits lost the two biggest pieces from last year in its starting guards, who combined for over 32 points per game last season. Anytime you lose two starting guards, it’s difficult, but it’s doubly so when those two guards were your best players and meant so much to the team, as was the case with Huffman and McAndrew.
But for Agel, who succeeds Craig Robinson and was a major part of Vermont’s recent success as Tom Brennan’s long-time top aide, there’s something just as important as the personnel.
“All we want to do is make simple basketball plays, and we get caught trying to make great plays,” said Agel. “Great plays take care of themselves, they just happen.”
As it is, the Bears do have a few good guards in place now. Senior Chris Skrelja and sophomores Peter Sullivan and Adrian Williams lead the way, with Sullivan and Williams moving into the starting lineup after being capable reserves last season. The latter two were easily the most seasoned reserves among the holdovers, with players like Garrett Leffelman and Steve Gruber being next in line.
Skrelja was a point forward-type on last season’s team and makes this team go, albeit with a different offense. On Wednesday against Army, he had 15 points and a career-high 11 assists, but more importantly, came through when it mattered. With the game tied at 63, the Bears ran off nine unanswered points to take the lead for good, and Skrelja had a layup and three assists to be directly accountable for every basket in the run.
“Chris has got a lot of pressure on him,” Agel remarked. “He’s got to handle the ball, we’re facing a lot of pressure and he’s the one guy that’s forced to have to dribble the ball all the time and make the right decisions. It’s a hard job, but it’s a job he relishes.”
For his part, Sullivan has made a big leap, and not just in the scoring column. With the shooting ability he displayed last year, no one would be surprised that he made the leap to averaging 16.2 points per game after scoring a career-high 26 on Wednesday. But he’s also leading the team in rebounding with 6.4 per game and is improving his shot efficiency of late. After shooting poorly in the first three games, he was 5-8 (including 4-6 from long range) against Northwestern, then 9-15 (including 5-9 from deep) against Army.
“I think he was feeling the pressure early on having to score for us and make big shots, and I think he’s really settled down and stepped up and made shots and rebounded,” said Agel.
Williams has quietly made the jump to a 13.2 points per game average. Add him together with veteran forwards Scott Friske and shot-blocking Matt Mullery, and the Bears don’t have a bad unit to start the game with.
Damon Huffman and Mark McAndrew aren’t walking through the locker room doors at Brown now. But the players they have, in particular the guards, are still pretty good and improving. That will be the case even more if they stick to making the simple plays the coach wants them to.
